


Urges or Reflexes?

by TheCityLightShow



Category: The Maze Runner (2014), The Maze Runner Series - James Dashner
Genre: Before the incident with the gun., I mean- what incident with the gun?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-10-20
Packaged: 2018-02-21 23:06:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2485559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheCityLightShow/pseuds/TheCityLightShow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thomas tries to define... whatever this is. These- subconscious wants of the mind? Whatever. He just wishes he understood.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Urges or Reflexes?

Thomas didn't understand why it kept happening. These little... urges. That's what Thomas justified them as, but a little thing on the edge of his mind told him they were reflexes.

 

Whatever they were, be it urges or reflexes, they were distracting – even now. Stood in the destroyed lab where he'd once worked, ready to leave the Maze Trials behind them, being asked what happens now – all Thomas wanted to do was reach back and hold Newt's hand.

 

But he didn't. He suppressed it, tried to concentrate. These urges were not new to Thomas, and were nowhere near as bad as they had been that first day coming into the Glade. He'd seen Newt's face second, and the overwhelming sense of relief the sight caused had terrified Thomas. That time when the urge came to reach out and touch, Thomas ran.

 

It happened when he, Minho and Alby came out of their night in the maze. Newt had been staring at him, especially once Alby was safely tied to a bed, and all Thomas had wanted to do was let him. Go to him, hug him and be hugged back – an impossible occurrence, that Thomas contented himself to walk away from. Somehow it felt like a betrayal.

 

The third time, it was not a physical urge – when Newt had called him Tommy, there had been something on the tip of his tongue. A taunt, a nickname – almost a pet name – that seemed to be his natural reply to a boy he'd just met. Thomas had frozen, moved slightly away, so focused on keeping the “cutie” _(Seriously, what the hell Thomas?!)_ contained in his head, he didn't see the look that flickered across Newt's face.

 

The last time it had happened was just after the Changing. Thomas supposed this was less of an urge of a solid nature, and more a subconscious _want_ – he defined it as an urge to keep him sane. Waking up afterwards in the pit, in the lap of Teresa, the thought had flickered, unbidden, across his mind – _why are you not Newt?_ The guilt that had consumed him then, knowing from his past that long ago he would have been thrilled to be where he was now, kept him from freaking out that time.

 

And now. Thomas was worried, he was scared, and all he wanted to do was hold Newt's hand – he didn't understand why – he'd met the boy days ago, why should it be so important to him?

 

Thomas was too busy trying not to reach backwards, that he almost didn't notice when Newt reached forward, gently hooking his fingers around Thomas'. No one said anything – Minho might even have smiled – and the relief he had felt that first day in the Glade came back to him, the words _“we're alive, you're alive”_ racing through his veins. The last of the memories that had begun to return since the Changing came to him now – sneaking off to see each other under WCKD's nose, whispered promises and muted kisses – and he understood.

 

Reflexes.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Not ashamed to say I forgot I shipped them til I saw the movie, and also not ashamed that I've seen it twice. Oopsie. :3


End file.
